Ultimately, participants should purposefully and systematically incorporate Translanguaging into their instructional planning. This session will reinforce that joining Thinking Classrooms and Translanguaging is a shift in mindset and practice that leads to greater equity and deeper understanding. Participants will: Adopt an Explicit Asset-Based Stance: Recognizing that multilingualism is an asset is the foundation. Implement an explicit Translanguaging Policy (e.g., All languages and speaking styles are valued) to legitimize students’ full linguistic repertoire for thinking and problem-solving. Emphasize multimodality in Collaboration: Integrate the use of non-linguistic resources (gestures, models, drawings, symbols) alongside linguistic repertoires that sometimes include multiple named languages (for example, English and Spanish) within collaborative student work. This allows students to demonstrate and contribute to knowledge, ensuring the rigor of mathematics content is maintained. Bridge Conceptual Understanding: Intentionally facilitate practices where students use the language of access (their existing linguistic repertoires) to clarify, contextualize, and express complex semantic relationships needed for mathematical reasoning, before transferring that understanding to the language of access (academic American-English mathematics-speak). Leverage Technology for Access: Utilize tools like translation apps and generative AI to provide instantaneous linguistic support, or draft culturally relevant explanations and analogies.
